Jan
3
Leonardo di Caprio, Ed Norton and Al Gore Pay Ecuador Not to Extract Oil
Filed Under Ecuador, Environment, Amazon Jungle
World pays Ecuador not to extract oil from rainforest
Governments and film stars join alliance that raises £75m to compensate Ecuador for lost revenue from 900m barrels
The Guardian
An alliance of European local authorities, national governments, US film stars, Japanese shops, soft drink companies and Russian foundations have stepped in to prevent oil companies exploiting 900m barrels of crude oil from one of the world’s most biologically rich tracts of land…
Nov
30
New Peruvian Site Rivals Machu Picchu
Filed Under Archaeology, Andes Mountains, Northern Kingdoms of Peru, Recent Discoveries
Marcahuamachuco: the next Machu Picchu?
Agence France-Presse
Nov 27, 2011
Lima, Peru - Marcahuamachuco, an enigmatic 1,600-year-old archeological complex built from stone in the northern Peruvian Andes, is emerging bit by bit from oblivion and could become a beacon of tourism on the scale of Machu Picchu.
Oct
2
Indigenous Languages in Final Throes
Languages like Kiliwua in Mexico, Amanayé in Brazil, Záparo in Ecuador and Mashco Piro in Peru are on the verge of disappearing. Their extinction would be a tragedy for humanity, warn linguists.
Oct 2, 2011
MEXICO CITY, (Tierramérica).- Hundreds of languages disappeared from Latin America and the Caribbean over the past 500 years, and many of the more than 600 that have survived could face the same fate in the not-so-distant future.
United Nations agencies and many experts maintain that it is an avoidable tragedy, but there are those who see it as the inherent fate of almost every language…
Sep
2
Butch Cassidy’s “Lost Manuscript” a Hoax
Filed Under Bolivia, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, Argentina
Anatomy of a Farce
By Dan Buck
Earlier this summer, the Salt Lake City Deseret News published an article, “Lost Butch Cassidy Manuscript Found,” by reporter Michael De Groote, disclosing the discovery of a “long-lost manuscript” said to be the autobiography of the Western outlaw. Brent Ashworth, a veteran Provo rare book and document dealer, had recently purchased the manuscript, “The Bandit Invincible,” on Abebooks.com. He told me this week he had paid about $12,000…
Aug
9
The Controversial Legacy of the Discoverer of Machu Picchu
Filed Under Archaeology, Incas, Peru-Yale Controversy, Machu Picchu
Hiram Bingham at Machu Picchu in 1912
The Controversial Legacy of Hiram Bingham: The Discoverer of Machu Picchu
By Kim MacQuarrie
In 1913, Hiram Bingham III, a 37-year-old assistant professor at Yale University and a future U.S. Senator, was sitting at his desk in his large, New Haven, Connecticut home, when he received a letter from Peru with a strange request. Bingham, six-foot-four inches tall, only 170 lbs, with gray eyes and short, sandy brown hair, smoothed the letter out and began reading it. He had no idea that this particular letter–and his reaction to it–would begin a controversy that would last for the next hundred years.
The letter was from a Peruvian antiquities collector who had looted various tombs in Peru and had 366 artifacts, most of which were Incan, for sale. Did Bingham want to buy the antiquities, the collector asked? Although it was illegal to export antiquities from Peru, the collector suggested that with enough money to bribe customs’ officials, Peru’s laws could be circumvented. Indeed, the crates could be sent to a fake name and address in the United States, making it impossible to trace the purchase to Bingham. The collector was asking for a sum equivalent to $240,000 today. Was Bingham interested?
May
30
Soybean Consumption in China Endangers Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest
Filed Under Environment, Brazil, Amazon Jungle
China’s Interest in Farmland Makes Brazil Uneasy
May 26, 2011
NYT
URUAÇU, Brazil — When the Chinese came looking for more soybeans here last year, they inquired about buying land — lots of it.
Officials in this farming area would not sell the hundreds of thousands of acres needed. Undeterred, the Chinese pursued a different strategy: providing credit to farmers and potentially tripling the soybeans grown here to feed chickens and hogs back in China…
Apr
28
Looters Strip Archaeological Heritage of Mayan and Moche Civilizations
Filed Under Archaeology, Northern Kingdoms of Peru
Ai Apaec, the Moche Decapitator
Looters Strip Latin America of Archaeological Heritage
A century after Machu Picchu’s rediscovery, ancient Mayan and Moche sites are being ransacked for tourist baubles
March 21 2011
The Guardian
The 100th anniversary of the rediscovery of Machu Picchu will highlight the current ransacking of the area’s archaeological treasures.
Etched into the surviving art of the Moche, one of South America’s most ancient and mysterious civilizations, is a fearsome creature dubbed the Decapitator. Also known as Ai Apaec, the octopus-type figure holds a knife in one hand and a severed head in the other in a graphic rendition of the human sacrifices the Moche practiced in northern Peru 1,500 years ago.
For archaeologists, the horror here is not in Moche iconography, which you see in pottery and mural fragments, but in the hundreds of thousands of trenches scarring the landscape: a warren of man-made pillage. Gangs of looters, known as huaqueros, are ransacking Peru’s heritage to illegally sell artifacts to collectors and tourists…
Mar
15
Amazon Dam Sting, James Cameron Fought Against Gets Go-Ahead from Brazil Government
Filed Under Environment, Indigenous Rights, Brazil, Amazon Jungle
Chief Raoni, a Kayapo Indian, has been a central figure in fighting against the dam
Brazil court reverses Amazon Monte Belo dam suspension
March 3, 2011
BBC
A court in Brazil has approved a controversial hydro-electric project in the Amazon rainforest, overturning an earlier ruling.
Last week a judge blocked construction of the Belo Monte dam, saying it did not meet environmental standards.
But a higher court on Thursday said there was no need for all conditions to be met in order for work to begin.
Critics say the project threatens wildlife and will make thousands of people homeless…
Feb
10
Aerial Footage Proves Existence of Brazil’s Uncontacted Tribes
Filed Under Environment, Indigenous Rights, Brazil, Amazon Jungle, Uncontacted Tribes
(Note: An estimated 100 uncontacted tribes still exist in the world, with the majority of them inhabiting Brazil (with an estimated 67 uncontacted tribes) and Peru (with 15). Most are located not far from the Peru-Brazil border in the Amazonian portions of those countries. Meanwhile, more than 180 oil and gas blocks now cover most of the western Amazon, the most species rich area on earth and home to many uncontacted or extremely isolated tribes. Many of these oil and gas concessions currently overlap indigenous territories, that is, land that has either been titled to native groups or else is currently lived upon by isolated tribes. Recently, a BBC film crew flew over an uncontacted village of what are probably Panoan natives in Brazil’s remote jungle near the Peruvian border. The following is a film clip of that footage from Survival International):
Jan
4
Peruvians brace as superhighway unfolds
The 3,400-mile Transoceanic Highway from Brazil to Peru has long been a pipe dream, but as it finally nears reality many along its long path worry that a way of life and livelihoods are in danger.
October 31, 2010
Los Angeles Times
Puerto Maldonado, Peru
The road crashes through the jungle like the fevered dream of the indomitable Fitzcarraldo, who schemes to transport a steamship overland through the Peruvian tropics in a cult film celebrating demented ambition…
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